:::::: News ::::::

GREAT WEEKEND TO BE A CANNON

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The father was living up to his
former reputation. The son was just trying to earn his
own.

 

DSA_8025.jpgThis tale of the generations centers
around the Cannons, father Scotty and son Scott, both of Lyman, South
Carolina
and well known in doorslammer
circles.

 

This past weekend, in Rockingham, NC, they pulled off a feat that no other
professional father/son tandem in drag racing has ever managed to accomplish.
They qualified tops in their respective professional categories. Scotty was the
No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel while Scott, who answers to Junior, also secured top
honors in Pro Modified – a classification the elder Cannon once ruled with an
iron fist.

 

Junior could only stand in awe on
the Rockingham Dragway starting line Saturday evening as Scotty sealed the deal
with a 4.603 elapsed time at 307 miles per hour. That was almost a carbon copy
of when Scotty watched Junior lay down a 5.96 elapsed time to not only nail the
pole position but also claim the bonus points associated with the Last Man
Standing award.

TUBULAR TALES -- AN INVESTIGATIVE STORY

10-21-07nhrachassis.jpgThis is a story filled with intrigue, personal animosities, political ramifications, obfuscation and denial. 

It’s also a story about potentially saving lives. 

 

This is an incredibly complex subject, one no journalist currently covering drag racing is probably capable of writing about in a comprehensive manner without assistance.  At the same time it’s a subject that must be covered because lives may be at risk if everything that’s happening largely behind the scenes and out of the public’s view doesn’t become public knowledge.  There are some involved in this situation who would prefer we didn’t take on something they’ll contend we know far too little about.  That may be true – but we know how to conduct research, and we know how to find the individuals capable of answering what might appear to an expert to be naïve questions.

 

No single incident caught the attention of the drag racing public as quickly and pervasively as John Force’s crash in Texas on September 23rd.  Covered extensively by the cameras of ESPN2, the story was quickly picked up by the wire services and spread nationally.  Unfortunately, the on-camera ESPN talking heads made numerous comments during the re-plays of the accident that had no basis in fact, and resulted in a lot of erroneous speculation on the Internet.  The commentators weren’t really at fault, as they had nothing to go on other than what they were seeing on the screens in front of them, and television abhors silence.

TEAM KALITTA SPECIAL APPEARANCE

NHRA drag racing stars Scott Kalitta and Hillary Will will be taking part in two
unique upcoming events to further support the United States military personnel
serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Both drivers and their race cars will
be appearing at two of this country’s largest and most well-known military
facilities.

The first event will be held at the “Home of the Fighter Pilot,” Nellis Air
Force Base near Las Vegas on Oct. 24, in advance of the NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Oct. 25-28. The
second event will be held at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, near San Diego,
Calif., on Nov. 5, following the final NHRA national event of the 2007 season at
the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Pomona, Calif., Nov. 1-4.

Kalitta drives the bright yellow and red, 8,000-horsepower DHL Toyota Solara
Funny Car for Kalitta Motorsports, a four-car, professional drag racing team
based in Ypsilanti. Will is also a member of the Team Kalitta family. She drives
the 325-mph Support Our Troops and Families Top Fuel dragster that is owned by
Ken Black and managed by Kalitta Motorsports.

VEGAS LUNCH WITH DAVE CONNOLLY

Fans are invited to lunch with one of the hottest young talents on the NHRA
POWERade Series circuit, Pro Stock's Dave Connolly, from 1-2 p.m. on Wednesday
at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, 3790 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las
Vegas. A Q&A will be followed by an autograph session with Connolly, driver
of the Torco Chevy Cobalt, who enters the seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA
Nationals this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on the heels
of  an incredible five wins in a
row.

ROCKINGHAM FINAL RESULTS

Veteran
Bruce Litton overcame years of championship frustration Sunday,littonDSA_9811.JPG claiming his
first IHRA series championship in impressive fashion by winning the Top Fuel
championship at the 12th annual Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam World Finals at Rockingham
Dragway.

Although he clinched the $150,000
championship with a first round win over veteran Luigi Novelli of Crete, Ill., the
51-year-old Indianapolis businessman closed the deal by
stopping six-time former IHRA Pro Modified Champion Scotty Cannon in a classic
final round.

Litton won one of three championships
that remained undecided entering Sunday’s eliminations, but was the only new
champ to also win the race.

FINAL IHRA PRO POINTS

Point standings (top 10) for IHRA professional categories following the IHRA
World Finals Presented by The U.S. Air Force featuring UTI
CHampionship Sunday at Rockingham Dragway, the last of 11 events in the $19.5
million 2007 Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series

ROUND-BY-ROUND PRO RESULTS FROM ROCKINGHAM2

Final round-by-round results from the IHRA World Finals Presented by The U.S.
Air Force featuring UTI CHampionship Sunday at Rockingham Dragway, the 11th of
11 events in the $19.5 million 2007 Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam Drag Racing
Series:

TOP
FUEL:

ROUND ONE -- Kevin Jones,
5.142, 228.92 def. T.J. Zizzo, 9.954, 77.79; Jeff O'Neill, 4.755, 314.68 def.
Terry McMillen, 5.222, 188.02; Scotty Cannon, 4.933, 261.22 def. Bobby Lagana
Jr., 6.955, 116.36; Bruce Litton, 4.679, 316.82 def. Luigi Novelli, 11.719,
91.52;

SEMIFINALS -- Cannon, 4.824, 276.13 def. O'Neill, foul; Litton, 4.707,
313.07 def. Jones, 5.076, 236.34;

FINAL -- Litton, 4.606, 318.92 def. Cannon,
5.014, 234.82.

ROCKINGHAM FINAL ROUND RESULTS

Sunday's final results from the IHRA World Finals Presented by The U.S. Air
Force featuring UTI CHampionship Sunday at Rockingham Dragway.  The  race is the
11th of 11 in the $19.5 million 2007 Knoll-Gas Nitro Jam Drag Racing
Series:

ROCKINGHAM FINAL QUALIFYING

Scott Cannon Clinches Pro Mod World Championship with No. 1 Qualifying Effort in
Rockingham Father Scotty Cannon Sr. shares spotlight as No. 1 qualifier in
Top Fuel

cannonDSB_7376.JPG
Pro Modified driver Scott Cannon Jr. of Lyman, S.C., shattered the Rockingham
Dragway track record Saturday, qualified No. 1 for Sunday’s 12th annual Knoll
Gas Nitro Jam World Finals presented by the U.S. Air Force and, in the process,
clinched the IHRA season championship.
 
 By qualifying No. 1 the second
generation pro increased his points lead over Mike Janis to an insurmountable 82
points, adding his first IHRA title to the six earned in the 1990s by his dad,
Scotty Cannon.
 
 
cannonDSB_7155.JPGNot to be outdone, the elder Cannon followed his son’s
lead and will start Sunday from the No.1 position in the featured Top Fuel
division after recording a best of 4.603 seconds at 307.72 miles per hour.  It’s
the first time in drag racing history that a father and son have led the pro
qualifying in the same event.

SHAV GLICK PASSES

Long time Los Angeles
Times
motorsports writer Shav Glick has passed
away at his home in Southern California.
 
Friends have confirmed
that Glick’s health had seriously deteriorated in the last few weeks, resulting
in a steady and apparently inexorable decline.
 
He was
85.

 

Glick was among NHRA Drag Racing’s best
friends and strongest supporters.
  Under his leadership Southern California’s largest circulation
daily newspaper regularly covered West Coast national events and other
news.
  It was
for those reasons, as well as many others, that the Media Center at Auto Club
Raceway in Pomona had been named in his honor years
ago.

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